CBI supports Gove’s drive for numeracy
EMPLOYERS’ organisation the CBI yesterday threw its weight behind Michael Gove’s pledge to put maths back at the heart of the curriculum.
In a speech at the Royal Society, the education secretary said he would like to see the “vast majority”of students studying maths until the age of 18 within a decade.
And he told City A.M. that the government would consider new vocational courses for 16-18 year olds that were in employment or training.
Gove said there were “strong arguments” for “making certain subjects compulsory for longer” and floated the idea that primary school pupils should start studying basic calculus and algebra.
East Asian countries had brought a “much greater focus on fundamental number concepts, fractions and the building blocks of algebra in primary school”, Gove said, adding that the UK was lagging behind the international standard for maths.
He said that even students who had done well at GCSE had forgotten much of what they knew by the time they reached university, and so lacked the numerical skills required for a science or social science degree.
The CBI, which has long called for a renewed drive to improve numeracy, said that more than a third of companies were concerned with the basic numeracy skills of school leavers.
“It’s really important to get the majority of people, regardless of ability, to continue developing their maths skills beyond GCSEs, so we welcome Gove’s goal to make this a reality,” said Katja Hall, chief policy director at the CBI.
She added: “There is currently a gap between the standard of maths achieved by many school leavers and the skills that employers require. Closing this ‘maths gap’ will give UK businesses access to the skills they need to stay ahead.”